Lakers offense flows with Nash at controls

As the Lakers ring in the New Year, Steve Nash represents the Champagne. He instantly popped open the Lakers' offense with pinpoint passes that look as smooth as a well-poured glass.

Nash also represents the confetti. The Lakers care only about purple-and-gold streamers dropping from the Staples Center rafters in June, but his four-game stint following a 24-game absence because of a fractured left leg has given the team reason to break out the party horns.

Nash also represents the New Year's resolution. The Lakers (15-15) enter tonight's game against the Philadelphia 76ers (14-17) at Staples Center convinced they've fixed what initially made things difficult to grasp in coach Mike D'Antoni's fast-paced offense.

"Steve's pace of the game allows people to flow around him and field their positions better than anybody," Lakers assistant Dan D'Antoni said. "When you see him with the ball, the pace that he plays allows people to get into the positions."

Dan D'Antoni's observations go beyond Nash's four-game stint with the Lakers, in which the 38-year-old guard has averaged 12.3 points on 60 percent shooting and 9.5 assists per contest. Dan worked as an assistant to his brother, Mike, both with the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns. In Phoenix, Nash won two regular-season MVP awards in four years under D'Antoni (2004-08).

Dan has likened the Lakers' adjustment to his brother's offense to the alphabet. During Nash's injury, D'Antoni placed the Lakers at the letter "D." With Nash's return, D'Antoni put the Lakers at the letter "M."

"Physically, it's not way up the alphabet chain yet because he's just coming back," D'Antoni said. "He's starting to get his legs underneath him."

The Lakers rank fourth in total offense (102.97 points per game) and ninth in field-goal shooting (45.5 percent). In the team's 3-1 showing since Nash's return, the Lakers have made 167 field goals off 113 assists. In their double-digit win Friday over Portland, the Lakers scored 23 fast-break points.

"We weren't getting any of that before, but we're starting to do that," Dan D'Antoni said. "That's still in its infancy, though. We're probably in `H' or `I' with that."

Kobe Bryant, who leads the NBA in scoring at 30.1 points per game, increased his output to 33.8 points since Nash's return.

During Nash's return, Pau Gasol has gone 5 of 10 from 3-point range. The Lakers forward also recorded at least five assists in the past five games after sitting out the previous eight because of knee tendinitis.

"You see Pau mixing his game up. That's his strength," Dan D'Antoni said. "He has to blend all of that. By blending all of that, he gives more room in there for Dwight (Howard)."

That remains a work in progress.

Howard, whose 17.6 points per game average marks his lowest output since the 2006-07 season, has averaged only 14.5 points since Nash's return. In the Lakers' loss last week to Denver, he earned a flagrant 2 foul against Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried and finished with only 12 points. He bounced back in the Lakers' double-digit win Friday over Portland with 21 points.

"Dwight and Pau have to move to get shots," Dan D'Antoni said. "You can't roam if the other guy is standing in the post. That's why Pau was always better with Lamar Odom in the game because he spread the floor and gave him freedom. When you have two bigs that both need to roam, you're in trouble."

That problem pales to the Lakers' early returns under Mike D'Antoni.

In his first four games, the Lakers failed to crack the 100-point barrier in three of them. That prompted Mike D'Antoni to say this in a timeout to Dan during the Lakers' double-digit loss in mid-November to Sacramento: "This is awful."

Since Nash's return, the Lakers have cracked the 100-point mark in all of them. But there's still more work. Mike D'Antoni wants the Lakers to reach at least 110 points. The Lakers also will have to integrate reserve guard Steve Blake once he returns in two to three weeks after rehabbing from surgery on a lower abdominal strain.

"It might look like they're trying harder, but it's that they're figuring it out and reacting more quickly to everything," Dan D'Antoni said. "That's the coach's dream. Hopefully we pull that off."